It seems like the more interested I get in Linux, the less appealing it becomes. The community seems to have no fucking clue what they're talking about, because everyone is just constantly talking over each other and contradicting themselves! I have spent so much time reading about Linux and distros and such to prepare for my eventual switch, but after all that I'm starting to question if I even want to make the switch. Here's a few of the things I have read over and over, that confuse me to no end:
- It doesn't matter what distro you use, but also you absolutely should not use that one!! Use that one it's much better trust me!
- Gaming is good on Linux now, but also it's super shit and you should keep windows if you want to game
- Sure you can use Nvidia cards, but also no you can't because nothing will work with them
- Just dual boot if you're not sure, but also no don't dual boot because windows will erase your shit if you do
- Trust me bro Linux is super easy to learn, also here's 14 different specific terms you'll have to Google, but even then you'll barely understand them
- Everything will work out of the box, but also you can't use that thing with that other thing without configuring that other thing first but that'll break that thing which needed that thing [...]
I'm slightly exaggerating and I may get downvoted but I needed to vent. It honestly sometimes seems like Linux diehards are intentionally hiding some of its major pitfalls in order to "convert" more people to their side.
I know windows sucks and that's why I want to switch, but at least when you have a windows question there's a concrete answer, not a bunch of nerds yelling out incoherent technobabble-sounding answers that all contradict each other.
And for fucks sake please type the whole words when speaking to beginners. How am I supposed to know what a DE, a VM, a CLI, a WM, PM, or all that other stuff is?
Linux is the "least welcoming, yet most aggressively butthurt that no one is joining it" community I've seen in a while.
Alright rant over, you may yell at me now.
My personal opinion: it isn't Linux itself that becomes less appealing, its just a portion of the community.
My advice: don't try to learn from reddit, lemmy, or anything similar when you're first starting out. Boot into a live cd, or install on a second drive/an old laptop and just start using it. Do a trial run of what you'd normally do with a computer. When you encounter issues, go to the wiki of the distro, or the documentation of the program in question (may be included in the program, on the programs github page, etc). This will help you learn from the ground up.
As for the whole "distros don't matter, but wait they actually do" paradox, I think I can speak to that. Yes, all distros can do the same things. Some can do those things out of the box, or be made ready for them easily, some take lots of setup. Point is, for an experienced user who understands linux, the difference in distro comes down to having your starting line at a different point. The finish lines can really all be pretty much identical.
Personally, there are two distros I recommend to a newbie to research first, then make an educated choice about what you want to use. Arch and Debian. At a glance, they have the exact opposite approach and philosophies. Cutting edge rolling release, vs outdated but stable point release. The reason I recommend looking at these two in particular is two-fold.
They've both been around for ages. They're proven, the documentation is excellent, etc.
They're barebones distros with numerous other projects based on each. Some add loads of features to the base install, some just make one big change to an underlying system. Point is, you could choose a basic system and work your way up, or start with some creature comforts pre-loaded
Edit: reason #3. Even if you end up choosing another distro, ie Fedora, by looking into these two "families" of linux, you'll come to better understand some of the elements that are considered fundamental to a given distro, how different release models work, different package managers, etc.